Tag: social
Posted inSandbox

Sandbox Issue 211: At The Sharp End. What to do (and not do) When a Song Suddenly Spikes

by Rocio Sanchez

Lead: Songs can spike for a multitude of reasons – and often the spike is part of the marketing plan and therefore anticipated (or at least hoped for). But songs can also spike for esoteric reasons or just through sheer luck. Distinct from viral hits (ephemeral and often the start of the end of a […]

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Posted inNews

What is Social Music in the Streaming Age?

Avatar photo by Stuart Dredge

Music IS social, and it always has been. We talk (and argue!) about it; we watch concerts together; go clubbing together; experience it as a communal soundtrack for birthday parties and religious worship and much, much more…

Any over-confident tech startup promising to ‘make music social’ is drunk on their own disruption. But of course, they’re talking about social in the ‘social networking’ sense: digital connectivity. And it’s true that in their current form, the big music-streaming services aren’t particularly social.

There were 176 million people using paid music subscriptions on streaming services at the end of 2017, but much of our time on Spotify, Apple Music and their rivals is spent listening alone – or thanks to headphones, listening alone in a crowd.